Town Board Meeting 7/14/09

It's been awhile sense I've posted here. I became very preoccupied with the presidential campaign and the excitement and frequent disappointment with the new administration. I decided to go to a meeting of the Ulysses Democratic Committee, because it was that time of year when they were to begin considering candidates for spots on the Town Board this November. I wanted to urge them not to make the same mistake they made a couple of years ago when they nominated a Libertarian (Chris Thomas) to run as a Democrat for a spot on the Village Board. I was surprised to see Chris Thomas's truck in the parking lot before I went into the meeting. He doesn't usually bother coming to these meetings. It turned out he had an agenda. He wants the Democratic Party nomination for the Town of Ulysses Supervisor spot! I've tried to talk Roxanne Marino, Elizabeth Thomas, and Alan Vogel into seeking the nomination, but they don't want the job. I might just have to do it myself.

More on that later. The purpose of this post is to give you a link to the audio of the latest Town of Ulysses Board meeting.

You will see a link to an mp3 file of the meeting below. If you click on the link, you can listen from within your browser, but there is usually a way to move this mp3 file to your desktop. In Firefox, you wait for the whole file to move to the browser, (a minute or two) then you go - File - Save Page As..... and you can put it anywhere you want. The advantage is that you can then listen with other programs (Real Player, Itunes etc.) which allow you to adjust equalizer settings and they give you a time counter. With the time counter and my notes below, you can jump to the part that interests you.

Here's the link to the mp3 file

The threat to our health, our environment, and our community from corporations wanting to come to Ulysses and extract gas from the Marcellus shale by pumping millions of gallons of water and deadly chemicals into wells drilled sideways underneath us, has recently come on my radar. In the past few months I've read a lot, and been to several meetings, and worked with Attorney Charles Wolff on the Ulysses Sustainable Energy Ordinance, in an attempt to prevent these corporations from exploiting our town.

That's why I came to this meeting and the one last month. Last month I presented a simplified version of what we want this ordinance to accomplish.

Rough Draft

Town of Ulysses Sustainable Energy Ordinance -

AN ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF ULYSSES,TOMPKINS COUNTY, NEW YORK,

ESTABLISHING A LOCAL SUSTAINABLE ENERGY POLICY by MAKING LAW That:

1. Declares that the energy policies of New York and the United States, controlled by large corporations profiting from carbon-based and nuclear power generation, is destructive of human and natural communities;

2. Asserts that the People of the Town of Ulysses reject the unsustainable energy policies of the State and Federal governments and that they have adopted a locally-defined, sane and logical energy policy based on a process of transitioning from unsustainable to renewable energy sources;

3. Prohibits people and corporations from energy production for sale when that energy is produced from unsustainable fuels;

4. Prohibits people and corporations from extracting unsustainable energy fuels in the Town of Ulysses, since they are used in the production for sale of unsustainable energy;

5. Commits the Township to a goal of assisting in the reduction of community residents’ and local

business’s use of unsustainable energy by 20% in each three year period;

6. Requires the Township adopt and publish an annual Sustainable Energy Plan that identifies specific measures to which the Township is committed during each fiscal year to achieve the targeted reduction in unsustainable energy consumption;

7. Makes government agencies and individuals liable for assisting corporations to violate the Ulysses Sustainable Energy Policy by issuing corporate charters, licenses and permits;

8. Provides for enforcement, both by the Town Board and by individual residents, of the

prohibitions in this Ordinance and protection of the rights of residents and ecosystems

9. Removes claims to legal privileges and protections from corporations that might be used to nullify the provisions of this ordinance.

10. Recognizes and enforces the rights of residents to defend their rights and the right of natural communities and ecosystems to exist and flourish

11. Subordinates corporations to the people of Ulysses

Dave Kerness requested to see the actual ordinance, so Attorney Charles Wolff and I have adapted an ordinance written by The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund. I emailed it to the board, and brought printed copies to the meeting Tuesday 7/14. I didn't get a chance to speak until the end of the meeting.

here's a link to the ordinance as a Word document

0hrs-0min-0sec starts off as usual with the Pledge of Allegiance, then discussion of the minutes of the last meeting.

I'm going to skip big chunks of this meeting and only comment on the portions that I found particularly interesting, but you, of course, should listen to every word.

0-6-22 Ken Zesserson gives the planning board report. This is interesting, listen to Ken explain how passing the Comprehensive Plan could help us limit the damage that exploitative gas drilling corporations could do.

Apparently, there will likely be a Comprehensive Plan meeting at the Fire Hall on August 25th. If there is anything that we can do to hurry this along we ought to do it.

0-10-55 Sue Ritter gives a report on the completed water survey. Dave Kerness gives the committee members a hard time for not including recommendations with their report. Odd. The committee apparently has done a very good job of accessing the current state of affairs, and they felt that it was the job of the town board members to interpret the results and discuss what if any action is required.

0-24-40 Chris Thomas gives us the Trumansburg Village Board report. He says that there will soon be a new tenant in the Movie Gallery building - a 24 hr gym. And possibly a new tenant in part of the Save A Lot building - bakery related. interesting.

Also, a grant application for some kind of structure at the Trumansburg Farmer Market has been approved.

0-26-35 Don Ellis uses the privilege of the floor to comment on what he thinks the board should do to address the threat from the gas drillers.

0-40-40 Liz Thomas reports on the possibility of federal money to extend broadband internet into rural areas. Clarity Connect is trying to put together a grant proposal. They want resolutions from the towns in the area. Deadline is 8/14.

1-17-20 Liz Thomas reads a resolution about asking the DEC to extend the comment period from 30 to 90 days in order to have enough time to read, comprehend and tear our hair out, about how little the Department of Environmental Conservation is likely to do to conserve the environment. The board passes it unanimously.

1-23-30 Liz asks who on the board has leased property to gas corps. Doug Austic admits that his land is leased.

1-28-00 Liz brings up the high levels of pollution of Trumansburg Creek according to the Community Science Institute. Steve Peningroth is asking for the board to release the already budgeted $5000 to support CSI's water testing in the creek, and establish a baseline prior to gas drilling, and CSI's continuing efforts to educate the public on these issues.

Dave Kerness objects on the grounds that the EPA is only interested in phosphorous and sediment and CSI tests for more than that, and there's more than one group testing the waters.

Rod Ferentino thinks that we ought to be going to the USDA about this and keep the 5G.

I think that CSI is much more independent than the USDA or the EPA or the DEC, and we ought to give them the money.

1-38-30 Doug finally gets to me. I pass out the printed resolution. I had emailed this to the entire board (I got the addresses from the website) yet some of them said they didn't get it. So I guess I'll have to check all of those addresses. Rod said that he had gotten it, and he complained that I my ordinance would prohibit windmills. I guess he didn't read it too carefully. That's right in the title. The Ulysses Sustainable Energy Ordinance. You see, wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, bio mass energy etc, these are sustainable and are encouraged, by my ordinance.

The town's attorney Marriette Geldenhuys said she thought that it appeared to be rather broad and opinion based rather than specific. There certainly are some big picture explanations within the ordinance which are there to explain why the board (should they decide to pass it) is passing it. I would be glad to remove these parts if the board wishes. Perhaps when Ms. Geldenhuys and the board have time to read it they will see that the ordinance spells out very specific action.

Ms Geldenhuys is correct that NYS Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) has preempted Ulysses right to self government. Article 23 delegates all authority to regulate oil and gas activity to the DEC. Get the irony? Our Environmental Conservation Law is telling us we have no legal right to conserve our environment. This ought to anger every member of the board. This preemption is unconstitutional. The Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, declares in part, “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States”

1-44-40 Rod says "I have a stupid question" I don't think this is a stupid question at all. Listen to Rod's approach here. I think he will run up against NY ECL Article 23, just as my ordinance would. But I think he is right, and that it is our right, it is our duty, to act on this.

Here you go Rod, I've written your resolution for you,

Town of Ulysses Toxic Substance Ordinance

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Conservation recently published a "Summary of Hydraulic Fracture Solutions" used by vendors that provide the chemical solutions that are added to the water used in Hydraulic Fracturing.

http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/oilgas/FractListing.pdf

Some of these ingredients are very dangerous, and very likely to enter the ground water around drilling sites, and inevitably will be in the large quantities of waste water that is a byproduct of the drilling and fracking process.

Ethylene glycol, and Methanol are common ingredients in these solutions.

Ethylene glycol is toxic and due to its sweet taste, children and animals will sometimes consume large quantities of ethylene glycol if given access to it. It and its toxic byproducts first affect the central nervous system, then the heart, and finally the kidneys.

Methanol is toxic. If ingested, as little as 10ml can cause permanent blindness by destruction of the optic nerve.

Whereas, we the Ulysses Town Board, object to the use of large quantities of these poisons in our town, we do hereby prohibit their use within the Town of Ulysses, in quantities greater than one gallon per year per natural person, or per corporation doing business within Ulysses.

Enforcement: any natural person or corporation found to be in violation of this ordinance shall be fined $750 for the first offense, and $1500 for second offense, and the fine shall continue to double with every subsequent offense. The Ulysses code enforcement officer shall be responsible for enforcing this ordinance, and issuing these fines, which shall be payable to the Town of Ulysses.

1-46-53 This part is funny, check it out. Rod says "what happens next, is it costs the taxpayers a lot of money to deal with" I say "so what we've come to is that we are so afraid of these corporations and their high powered lawyers, that we are afraid to stand up for our rights" Rod says "NO, NO,NO, NO....... I DID NOT SAY

THAT'' He picks up Liz's recorder and speaks directly into it so we don't miss it. But he is afraid, or perhaps "concerned" is a better word, that passing these ordinances might result in being sued by one of these corporations. This is a reasonable concern, but it must be weighed against the greater threat to our health, future, community, and environment. And it's just the right thing to do. If we do get sued, I'm not convinced it has to cost very much. We don't necessarily need William Kunstler. Perhaps our new town supervisor can represent us without counsel. Ha. Or perhaps we can find an attorney to take the case pro bono.

1-47-35 Jim Meeker (highway supervisor) takes a common approach, wait and see what the experts have to say about it. He is saying that the Tompkins County Counsel of Governments is working on this. I hope they do come up with miracles, but I don't think we should count on it. Let's be pro-active.

1-50-20 Rod objects to the whole approach of slowing down the damage via road regulations. He says that going after the trucks is like treating a symptom instead of treating the disease. He's right, but I think we have to use every tool we have.

1-53-09 Ken Zezerson says that there are 19 DEC field agents charged with inspecting 13,000 gas wells now, and there will soon be many, many more wells. The DEC is woefully underfunded. It's not clear to me wether the DEC is part of the problem or part of the solution, but they are incapable of adequately overseeing the existing gas wells let alone the hydrofracking boom.

1-55-54 Doug Austic says that we could require a bond on any road that we knew would be heavily used by the tanker trucks, and that any repairs could be funded by these bonds. Good idea.

1-56-40 Lucia Tyler suggests that we pass a resolution is support of the bill in Congress that would reverse the exemption to the Safe Drinking Water Act. Good idea, as long as that's not all we do, because this bill is probably not going to pass. Pressure from lobbyists recently got the sponsors of the bill to back off of their attempt to get quick passage, and they have asked for "further study" in order to keep the bill alive.

1-58-35 Doug says that it's pointless to make laws because we can't enforce them anyways. What is this the wild wild west? What's the point in having laws if we can't enforce them? I disagree. I said you just send the police out and turn the truck around. Doug says "YOU CAN'T DO THAT ALLEN, THERE'S THINGS YOU JUST CAN'T DO" I disagree. It depends on how we word the ordinance. If violations required the arrest of the perps, then it would be a sticky situation for the police, and the sheriffs department is suffering from cutbacks. If the ordinance specified a fine, however, it might be better handled by a code enforcement officer.